Yeah, I'm evil and stuff. Tell ya what- Saturdays are now officially
update days- more time for me to write, more time for all of you to read.
Lyrrik: *taunts me mercilessly* SandryLark's a procrastinator! SandryLark's a procrastinator!
Am not. Anyway, here's your chapter, late as always...
Disclaimer: Anybody who even thinks of thinking that I own rights to the Matrix must be totally bonkers. If I owned this stuff, the trilogy would probably have a totally different ending, and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, I'd be gloating over the box-office profits. Anyone who steals my stuff (Project Athena, the spoon-bug, the Athena defense system, etc) without asking first will be set upon by Lyrrik.
Lyrrik: Arg! Grrrr! *brandishes Sweeney Todd's evil straight razor*
Hey! You little thief! That's Sweeney's!
Lyrrik: *smirks, looks smug* He's dead. Tobias killed him at the end of the play. He doesn't need 'em anymore.
Whatever. If you bother to ask me nicely, I'll probably share them, but thieves bug me.
'...la di da...happy day!...' is something you will never, ever see Silver thinking...
Oh yeah, and ### is the new symbol for "this is now officially the author's note". *** is now otherwise employed as a symbol for skipped time.
Project Athena- Chapter XV: Training
The sudden torrent of knowledge boggled her. The sensation of suddenly knowing would have been more fun than anything else if Yak had been teaching her anything interesting, but it was mostly boring. Repair stuff, basic first aid, stuff like that.
'...whoa...'
The code recognition was cool while it lasted, as was the disk on dangerous machines, but it was like comparing History to Math: better, but only a bit. The training dragged on. She was halfway through a set of basic language disks- enough Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, and Japanese to say "Where's the nearest pay phone, please" and other basic stuff, when she decided she needed a break from it all.
"Demasiado informacione..." she said weakly. (A/N: Spanish for 'Too much information')
"Quitting so soon?" Yak asked mischievously, tapping the keyboard and pausing the stream of information.
"No. I need the bathroom. I assume there is one?"
"Next door to the mess." Silver raised an eyebrow. "All the plumbing's centralized- it's more efficient that way."
'...okay...'
Yak pulled the jack out of Silver's head, and she waited a moment for the dizziness and tingling to go away before lurching to her feet. She clung to the chair arm for a moment before walking very slowly towards the bathrooms. The toilet looked like it would have been more at home on an airplane than anywhere else, but was otherwise pretty normal. A small notice on the wall said, in flawless handwriting, 'Wash your hands in the mess sink. Use soap. Thank you.' After flushing, a low hum echoed a bit in the small space. Silver froze, sure she had accidentally damaged something, but it stopped about thirty seconds later. She shrugged, obeyed the sign's edict, and returned to Yak. When she inquired as to the nature of the hum, Yak grinned wickedly.
"Oh, that's just the evaporator. Athena has no good water source- every drop counts." Silver pulled a disgusted face.
'...ewww...how very pleasant to know...'
"So, what's next?" she asked.
'...please don't let it be boring...'
"You'll finish up the languages, and move on to other stuff."
"Other stuff like...?" The only answer she got was that horrible cold feeling in her head. Rolling her eyes, she lay back and tried to fall asleep as the last of the languages disk downloaded. What came next was a complete and total shock: explosives.
'...sweeeeet...'
An insane grin spread over her face as her head filled with how-to's on everything from gelignite to to TNT. It was almost disappointing to move on to firearms. When Yak paused to dig out another set of disks, she demanded "How much more of this is there?"
'...please, please let there be lots of it...'
"Not counting the simulations, anywhere from twelve to twenty hours. It depends on the person. Some learn quickly, some don't. Average for non- combat is about six hours. You managed to pare it down to, oh, just a tad short of five. Pheniks says that Lynx got it in three, but then Lynx is Lynx. Don't feel bad or anything- you have to compare yourself to the normal people."
"Okay... What about combat? That's what I was asking about."
"Supposedly, somewhere between ten and fifteen. They say that everyone's favorite resident superhero finished combat in ten, but no one has ever even come close to that. Outlying data screws up averages so bad..."
'...huh?...who?...'
"Who got it in ten?" Silver asked.
"You haven't heard about him then? I was sure I downloaded those history disks..." She scanned the console, checking through the stacks of finished disks before finding them on the floor where they had fallen. Silver had to grin. It was like seeing herself sorting out her notes.
'...pfft!...now where the flying hell did last Tuesday's math notes go?...ha!...'
Recovering the missing disks, Yak inserted the first one. Turning to glance at Silver, who was wearing a mysterious grin, she asked, "Ready, then?"
***
In the end, training took Silver two days, mainly because Yak refused point- blank to go longer that eight hours total in one day. Her excuse was that "Sketch tried that. She had a migraine for two days, and she was a right bitch about it." This irritated Silver quite a bit, as it meant more pluggings-in and -out, but she supposed it was preferable to a two-day headache. At about lunchtime on the second day, she sat up with what she considered a 'score' of about fourteen and a half hours.
'...hmm...not so bad, I guess...considering that some people might not even be done with the combat training segment yet...but counting Yak's "little extras"- the multilingual expletives and stuff, isn't it more like fifteen?...'
But when she asked Yak, Yak just chuckled. "Everyone gets a little something extra, nobody counts it, so it really doesn't matter. It all evens out in the end."
###
Time for thankies to all my lovely reviewers!
Lyrrik: That would be OUR reviewers, thanks. Anyhoo... da white rabbit- thanks for your input. Yaebginn, I think you probably should get the "Most Prolific Reviewer Award" if such a thing actually existed. As it doesn't, just know that me and Sandrylark sent heartfelt thanks for filling SandryLark's inbox with review alerts and making her happy.
Oh yeah... Yaebginn- why am I a nutcase, again? Please tell me as I'm totally mystified.
Lyrrik: Yes, please enlighten me, too! The Lady Voldemort. Hmm, let's see. You go to SandryLark's school and therefore have the power to thwap her if either of us say anything bad here, so, um... thanks for reviewing and stuff. Voldie is coming, and just be patient already, please! Oh, and thanks for reviewing "Breakfast in the City"...on SandryLark's account, but still.... she'll play that song on CD for you on Monday or whenever she sees you next. Now... "poopy"...first off, who the hell are you? And if you're going to review, please have something to say. And A.L.T2- thanks for reviewing again. If you think it's getting interesting now, hold on for a few chapters of obligatory character development and stuff, and something cool will happen.
And to my wonderful reader-on-paper (you know who you are...), thanks so much for all your support. That email was kinda unnecessary and all, but 'tever. Byee! See youse guys again on Saturday!
Lyrrik: *taunts me mercilessly* SandryLark's a procrastinator! SandryLark's a procrastinator!
Am not. Anyway, here's your chapter, late as always...
Disclaimer: Anybody who even thinks of thinking that I own rights to the Matrix must be totally bonkers. If I owned this stuff, the trilogy would probably have a totally different ending, and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, I'd be gloating over the box-office profits. Anyone who steals my stuff (Project Athena, the spoon-bug, the Athena defense system, etc) without asking first will be set upon by Lyrrik.
Lyrrik: Arg! Grrrr! *brandishes Sweeney Todd's evil straight razor*
Hey! You little thief! That's Sweeney's!
Lyrrik: *smirks, looks smug* He's dead. Tobias killed him at the end of the play. He doesn't need 'em anymore.
Whatever. If you bother to ask me nicely, I'll probably share them, but thieves bug me.
'...la di da...happy day!...' is something you will never, ever see Silver thinking...
Oh yeah, and ### is the new symbol for "this is now officially the author's note". *** is now otherwise employed as a symbol for skipped time.
Project Athena- Chapter XV: Training
The sudden torrent of knowledge boggled her. The sensation of suddenly knowing would have been more fun than anything else if Yak had been teaching her anything interesting, but it was mostly boring. Repair stuff, basic first aid, stuff like that.
'...whoa...'
The code recognition was cool while it lasted, as was the disk on dangerous machines, but it was like comparing History to Math: better, but only a bit. The training dragged on. She was halfway through a set of basic language disks- enough Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, and Japanese to say "Where's the nearest pay phone, please" and other basic stuff, when she decided she needed a break from it all.
"Demasiado informacione..." she said weakly. (A/N: Spanish for 'Too much information')
"Quitting so soon?" Yak asked mischievously, tapping the keyboard and pausing the stream of information.
"No. I need the bathroom. I assume there is one?"
"Next door to the mess." Silver raised an eyebrow. "All the plumbing's centralized- it's more efficient that way."
'...okay...'
Yak pulled the jack out of Silver's head, and she waited a moment for the dizziness and tingling to go away before lurching to her feet. She clung to the chair arm for a moment before walking very slowly towards the bathrooms. The toilet looked like it would have been more at home on an airplane than anywhere else, but was otherwise pretty normal. A small notice on the wall said, in flawless handwriting, 'Wash your hands in the mess sink. Use soap. Thank you.' After flushing, a low hum echoed a bit in the small space. Silver froze, sure she had accidentally damaged something, but it stopped about thirty seconds later. She shrugged, obeyed the sign's edict, and returned to Yak. When she inquired as to the nature of the hum, Yak grinned wickedly.
"Oh, that's just the evaporator. Athena has no good water source- every drop counts." Silver pulled a disgusted face.
'...ewww...how very pleasant to know...'
"So, what's next?" she asked.
'...please don't let it be boring...'
"You'll finish up the languages, and move on to other stuff."
"Other stuff like...?" The only answer she got was that horrible cold feeling in her head. Rolling her eyes, she lay back and tried to fall asleep as the last of the languages disk downloaded. What came next was a complete and total shock: explosives.
'...sweeeeet...'
An insane grin spread over her face as her head filled with how-to's on everything from gelignite to to TNT. It was almost disappointing to move on to firearms. When Yak paused to dig out another set of disks, she demanded "How much more of this is there?"
'...please, please let there be lots of it...'
"Not counting the simulations, anywhere from twelve to twenty hours. It depends on the person. Some learn quickly, some don't. Average for non- combat is about six hours. You managed to pare it down to, oh, just a tad short of five. Pheniks says that Lynx got it in three, but then Lynx is Lynx. Don't feel bad or anything- you have to compare yourself to the normal people."
"Okay... What about combat? That's what I was asking about."
"Supposedly, somewhere between ten and fifteen. They say that everyone's favorite resident superhero finished combat in ten, but no one has ever even come close to that. Outlying data screws up averages so bad..."
'...huh?...who?...'
"Who got it in ten?" Silver asked.
"You haven't heard about him then? I was sure I downloaded those history disks..." She scanned the console, checking through the stacks of finished disks before finding them on the floor where they had fallen. Silver had to grin. It was like seeing herself sorting out her notes.
'...pfft!...now where the flying hell did last Tuesday's math notes go?...ha!...'
Recovering the missing disks, Yak inserted the first one. Turning to glance at Silver, who was wearing a mysterious grin, she asked, "Ready, then?"
***
In the end, training took Silver two days, mainly because Yak refused point- blank to go longer that eight hours total in one day. Her excuse was that "Sketch tried that. She had a migraine for two days, and she was a right bitch about it." This irritated Silver quite a bit, as it meant more pluggings-in and -out, but she supposed it was preferable to a two-day headache. At about lunchtime on the second day, she sat up with what she considered a 'score' of about fourteen and a half hours.
'...hmm...not so bad, I guess...considering that some people might not even be done with the combat training segment yet...but counting Yak's "little extras"- the multilingual expletives and stuff, isn't it more like fifteen?...'
But when she asked Yak, Yak just chuckled. "Everyone gets a little something extra, nobody counts it, so it really doesn't matter. It all evens out in the end."
###
Time for thankies to all my lovely reviewers!
Lyrrik: That would be OUR reviewers, thanks. Anyhoo... da white rabbit- thanks for your input. Yaebginn, I think you probably should get the "Most Prolific Reviewer Award" if such a thing actually existed. As it doesn't, just know that me and Sandrylark sent heartfelt thanks for filling SandryLark's inbox with review alerts and making her happy.
Oh yeah... Yaebginn- why am I a nutcase, again? Please tell me as I'm totally mystified.
Lyrrik: Yes, please enlighten me, too! The Lady Voldemort. Hmm, let's see. You go to SandryLark's school and therefore have the power to thwap her if either of us say anything bad here, so, um... thanks for reviewing and stuff. Voldie is coming, and just be patient already, please! Oh, and thanks for reviewing "Breakfast in the City"...on SandryLark's account, but still.... she'll play that song on CD for you on Monday or whenever she sees you next. Now... "poopy"...first off, who the hell are you? And if you're going to review, please have something to say. And A.L.T2- thanks for reviewing again. If you think it's getting interesting now, hold on for a few chapters of obligatory character development and stuff, and something cool will happen.
And to my wonderful reader-on-paper (you know who you are...), thanks so much for all your support. That email was kinda unnecessary and all, but 'tever. Byee! See youse guys again on Saturday!